Boy Scouts of America: Timeless Values, Apathy or Political Correctness?

The Boy Scouts have a long standing program that has helped to produce many great leaders over its long history – the Eagle Scout. Neil Armstrong, Willie Banks, Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey (WWII Submarine Commander, Medal of Honor recipient), President Gerald Ford (first Eagle to be President), Texas Governor Rick Perry, Sam Walton (Wal-Mart founder) and even “Ozzie” Nelson, to name just a few who have made Eagle and continued on to lead in different fields.

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has taken on the issues of atheism and homosexuality and come out with legal decisions in their favor.

Unfortunately, one issue the BSA has faltered on is disrespect for our American Flag in Texas no less.

A friend of mine (and Boy Scout leader) told me of an incident at the summer camp his troop attended. Like he said, “boys will be boys”, but this included the leaders. He went on to tell me about the actions of Troop 758 out of Carrollton, Texas.

“They were the most disrespectful troop I have ever seen.”

During the course of one meal, the Scoutmaster from his troop confronted one boy from troop 758 about his actions and the boy gave him a rude hand gesture and went on his way. The scoutmaster followed the boy to his table and spoke with the leaders of troop 758, but they showed no concern for the boy’s actions and for the most part ignored the concerns of a fellow scout leader.

All indications were that troop 758 was not living up to the honor and traditions of the Boy Scouts of America. The straw that broke the camel’s back was at the Flag Ceremony Friday evening while family members were in attendance.

I could tell by the look on his face that he was about to tell me something that made his blood boil. He continued,

“..while the Flag Lowering Ceremony was in progress, and the rest of the troops were at attention, eyes front, troop 758 was on the porch talking loudly, in their native tongue, Arabic from what I could tell. It wasn’t just the boys but also the leaders, many in class A uniform. Luckily about the time I was just opening my mouth to holler at them another leader from another troop that was standing closer got them quieted down with more tact than I could have mustered at that moment.”

The Boy Scout oath:

Where was the duty to country? It does not matter where you were born or were your family hails from, once you or your family moves to another country to live, you have duties to that country. The duty to respect the symbols and ceremonies of the country applies to all that enter any country, no matter how you personally feel about said country.

Some who read this article will say he just being “racist.” That is not the case at all. He also told me of another troop that was in attendance at this summer camp.

“Troop 810, which was made up mostly of Arabics, from what I could tell, was your standard run of the mill troop. I held conversations with a couple of their leaders at different times and enjoyed talking to them; they displayed the qualities instilled by true scouts.”

The scout leader who experienced the disrespectful actions in question first contacted the Longhorn Council, the local Boy Scout Council for the area that the camp serves, and reported the problems. A week went by and he received no response. He escalated.

He fired off an email to David Burke, who is in public relations with the national headquarters for Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Burke responded promptly that he had forwarded the issue to the proper people. Interestingly enough, my friend received a phone call from Longhorn Council that very afternoon. It turns out that troop 758 was from the Circle Ten Council and the information had been sent to Scott Ferguson, Director of Support Services for Circle Ten Council.

“Mr. Ferguson sent me an email stating that he would be speaking to the leadership of troop 758. A week went by without hearing from Mr. Ferguson, so I shot him another email asking what had been done to rectify the situation. When Mr. Ferguson got back with me he stated, that he has ‘spoken with the Troop Leadership of 758 and they were very sad to receive negative complaints’. The email went on, ‘They would like to apologize if they did anything wrong to offend you and your troop.’”

This is when I thought I might have to give my friend some blood pressure medicine or something stronger to calm him down.

“IF they did anything to offend me!? They disrespected my country and can’t understand why I’m pissed! The email stated that the Camp Director felt that no further action was needed. Mr. Ferguson closed the email with, ‘I believe this brings this situation to a conclusion.’ I believe troop 758 owes a public apology to every scout, leader, staff, and family member that was in attendance. I love being involved in scouting but I could not deal with the lack of action on this incident. We truly have reached the end of a time-honored tradition if the Boy Scouts are now politically correct!”

For those of you that are skeptical of the incidents my friend shared for this article, let me assure you that I would not doubt his word. Not only have I known him for long time but he is also an active leader in both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and attained the rank of Eagle when he was a Boy Scout. I am not calling for a boycott or anything of that nature but I do think that we need to send a clear message to all organizations in this great nation- we WILL stand up for our country whether it is politically correct or not!

July 20, 2011: Update- CDN has obtained the actual email correspondence between James Allen, the friend and contact that Benjamin Wallace wrote of and quoted in this article. This is all of the emails, in their entirety, with only the personal email address and phone number of Mr. Allen being redacted.

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For those of you that own firearms, train hard and well and teach those that do not know how.
 Be good stewards of the right to bear arms, for we are the last line of defense against tyranny.

-Benjamin Wallace